Kiosks are becoming increasingly popular among some businesses as a means for selling their products or services. For example, convention kiosks have been used to sell DVDs, food, lottery tickets, and photo processing services. One particular advantage of kiosks is they enable businesses to offer a desired product or service to consumers while avoiding higher overhead costs typically associated with standard brick and mortar establishments.
Another advantage of kiosks is the potential 24/7 product/service accessibility that they provide consumers. Due to busy work and/or social schedules, consumers may not have the time or opportunity to visit retail establishments during operating hours. By offering products and services via Kiosk, business can sell products or services when most brick and mortar establishments are closed.
Some services offered by businesses have not been successfully implemented or sold with a kiosk. For example, conventional repair services performed at brick and mortar establishments may require a customer to wait for an item to be repaired or require the customer to drop-off the item and return later to pick-up the item. In the case of a conventional kiosk, depending of the type of item, consumers may be hesitant to drop-off certain types of items for repair. For example, consumers may be more hesitant to drop-off personal electronic devices, such as mobile phones and tablet computers, at a kiosk due to concerns of traceability and security.
Therefore, a kiosk system is needed which enables a customer to drop-off mobile computing devices, such as smart phones, tablets, or other valued items, for repair and to accept such repaired devices/items for pick-up by the customer. Additionally, such a system needs to address consumer concerns by providing traceability, security, and convenience when dropping off such items for repair.